An apparently anonymous painting purchased by an Italian collector at a flea market in France 15 years ago has been attributed to modernist painter Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), known for his portraits of figures with elongated faces and necks.
The painting is unsigned, but on the back it has the seal of a store that supplied products to artists in Montmartre, the bohemian neighborhood of Paris where Modigliani lived at the beginning of the 20th century.
This element alerted the owner of the painting, the Italian collector and businessman Paolo Guzzini, who lives in Recanati, in the center of the peninsula. Guzzini had bought the work at a flea market in Le Mans, France, and decided to look for it in the Amedeo Modigliani Foundation Archive in Rome, who confirmed the authorship of the painting.
The painting, according to the foundation, portrays Mario Cavalieri, a friend of the painter he met in Venice and who hosted him in his youth.
Main Image: Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) in his studio in Paris